Palestinian Prisoners Boost the Morale of Israeli Guards

Between 1967 and present time more than 700,000 Palestinians have been detained by the Israeli Occupation Forces. That means that every Palestinian family had or has a member in Israeli prisons. We can certainly testify to that since, as we comfortably type this up on beds with the best mattresses in the country, hardcore revolutionary blood is part of our DNA. The 17th of April is commemorated as Prisoner Day, but the families and friends of the 7000 plus prisoners in Israeli jails and penitentiaries do not think of them once a year, but every single day in all waking moments of their lives. The inhumane conditions of the prisoners must be given more coverage, as most are denied medical access, family visits, subject to torture and humiliation, administrative detentions (the longest being Ayed Dudeen), and held indefinitely without any charge. The facilities are poor; overcrowding is a major problem, and many cells are infested with insects and mice that feast upon the skin of prisoners. If we hear another hypocrite scream "Gilad Shalit"...

Here in Ramallah the demonstration lead to as usual Ofer Prison, which is located just on the outskirts. Before that, one woman was extremely upset that the big poster hung around Manara Square did not have her son's picture on it, and as people tried to calm her down she yelled, "They give the priority to put pictures of the sons of those who work in the PA, they are not better than my son!" We're not going to comment on that but this provides an opening for us to snark at the Palestinian "leadership's" casual throwing away of the cause, conveniently forgetting the prisoners, martyrs, and everyone else who has sacrificed their life in face of oppression and terrorism. The Palestine Papers still ring loudly in our ears.

Women brought their framed pictures of their husbands, fathers, sons, nephews, uncles, grandsons, and chanted against the occupation. Israeli soldiers came up to them behind the fence and told them to get out of here, this is not a lawful protest. This inspired rigorous chants of "The occupation is not lawful!" The soldiers warned them a final time, threatening to shoot tear gas at them, but the crowd remained. Firas Badr, whose father is a martyr and his mother a prisoner, was dragged away by the IOF after a slight confrontation when the soldiers starting spraying mace directly into the eyes of the protesters. A small protest was held for him a couple of days ago yet he remains incarcerated in Ofer.

Recently as Israel continues with its dignified policy of collective punishment, hundreds of women was arrested from the village of Awarta on suspicion of harboring any information regarding the murder of the settler family in the very well protected colony of Itmar. A six year old got kicked in the process, but life told her to suck it up because she's a Palestinian. They were forced to sign documents in Hebrew, a language they don't know. But it's all democratic, y'know?

Prisoners are subjected to surprise raids by Israeli forces, usually carried out on the pretext of looking for illegal objects kept in cells (a razor? marijuana? an atomic bomb?) but of course it is meant as another kind of trauma inflicted upon the prisoners.

Here's one such raid, a few years ago.

Who: Israeli Masada combat unit
What: Operation Early Wake-up Call
Where: Ktziot Prison
Why: To boost the morales of the Israeli guards
When: 2007

Turn on the subtitles by clicking on CC at the bottom right.

Ammo was not specified other than it being "not meant to kill". Kind of like how the white phosphorus wasn't meant to burn the skin and bone of Gazan civilians, but used as a smokescreen.

Shlomi Cohen grades the operation a ten out of ten. Mohammad Ashqar died from a head wound in that operation. Excellent work guards, are you all pumped up and renewed with motivation?

"The tougher conditions will remain because this is the only way we can keep you inside." For serial killers, rapists, and psychotics, sure. But show us an unbiased legal trial and sentence and we'll show you a cow that farts rainbows.

Sumoud.